Name of Student:

Article/Reading:

Robert Marron G00304955

The Code of Professional Conduct for

Teachers
The Teaching Council. (2012). The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers
(second edition). Dublin: Teaching Council.

1. CONCISE SUMMARY OF READING

The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers serves as a guide for teachers to uphold the
honour and dignity of the teaching profession. It also informs people's understanding and
expectations of teachers. Additionally, it will be used by the Council as a reference point in
exercising its investigative and disciplinary functions under Part 5 of the Teaching Council
Act, 2001, dealing with fitness to teach.
Before detailing the 6 points of the code, the article defines the role of the teacher; "The
role of the teacher is to educate. With Care, Respect, Integrity, and Trust".
Standards that apply to all registered teachers:
1. Professional Values and Relationships
Teachers should inspire and celebrate success, respect uniqueness, be inclusive, positive
relationships and base their work on mutual trust and respect.
2. Professional Integrity
Teachers should act with honesty, respect privacy, represent themselves honesty - for example
using their name as per register of teachers, and avoid conflict between their personal and
private life.
3. Professional Conduct
Teachers should ensure students' safety and welfare, ensure that any communication is
appropriate, and ensure that they do not practise while under the influence of any substance
which impairs their fitness to teach.
4. Professional Practice
Teachers should maintain high standards of practice in relation to pupil/student learning,
planning, monitoring, assessing, reporting and providing feedback
5. Professional Development
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Teachers should take personal responsibility for sustaining and improving the quality of their
professional practice - through CPD.
6. Professional Collegiality and
Collaboration
Teachers should work with teaching colleagues and student teachers in the interests of
sharing, developing and supporting good practice work in a collaborative manner with
pupils/students, parents/guardians, school management, etc.
Teachers should also cooperate with the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and
Skills and other statutory and public non-statutory educational and support services, as
appropriate
Additionally, teachers should engage with the planning, implementation and evaluation of
curriculum at classroom and
school level.

2. CRITICAL REFLECTION

[2 x A4 pages]

Critical Reflection
This article provides a strong framework to guide newly qualified teachers in creating a safe
and professional environment to benefit both the students and themselves. As teachers can
qualify through many different institutions it is reasonable to assume that not all teachers
receive the same level of direction regarding professionalism and the scope of the duties of
the teacher.
The 2012 Pasi Sahlberg Review of Provision of Initial Teacher Education in Ireland noted
that; "Another indeterminate annual source of teacher supply is that of teachers who obtain
their qualifications outside of Ireland and come here to teach. Many of these are Irish people
who do not gain admission to teacher education in Ireland" (Sahlberg, 2012, p19).
With teachers qualifying abroad to then work in Ireland, the necessity of this document
becomes even more evident as a unifying article by which every teacher can find general
guidelines to ensure they are meeting a reasonable professional standard.
The ASTI summarises The Education Act (1998) with,
"The Act sets out broad objectives and principles underpinning the education system and
provides for the rights of children and others to education. It also clarifies the roles and the
responsibilities of teachers, Principals, school patrons, Boards of Management and the
Minister" (ASTI, 2015).
The Code of Conduct builds on this by focusing on clarifying the roles and responsibilities of
teachers. One of the strengths of the article is how easy it is to read, considering that it is
something that teachers and parents alike should read to help, "inform peoples understanding
and expectations of teachers." (The Teaching Council, 2012). The article is well laid out with
bullet-point style concise pieces of information. The purpose, structure, and context are
explained in the introduction and the Role of the Teacher is examined on the page before the
6 standards are detailed.
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From the tutorial, the consensus seems to be that the Code of Conduct seems very much to
hold a common sense approach when outlining the expectations of the teacher. However, the
ASTI's article on the Education (Welfare) Act, (2000) highlights the fact that what we take to
be "common sense" is in fact a manifestation of evolving social norms and significant
research;
"This Act repealed the 1926 legislation on school attendance and radically altered the
approach, from one based on penalties to one focussed on identifying children and young
people who have, or who in the future may have, school attendance difficulties and
addressing their needs both in their schools and their communities" (ASTI, 2000).
The Code can also be seen to reflect current societal norms;
"The Council believes that the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers provides an
ethical foundation along with explicit standards of conduct to be observed at all times" (The
Teaching Council, 2012, p.4).
This ethical foundation is guided by society's definition of ethics, as the definition of ethical
treatment can differ globally. An example of the differentiation of ethics depending on
location would be the differing opinions on corporal punishment in the US at the moment.
"In 19 states, it's legal for teachers or principals to punish public school students by hitting
them repeatedly instead of just giving them detention" (Adwar, 2014).
In contrast, in Ireland, corporal punishment was banned by regulation in 1982, and its use
became a criminal offence in 1996. Therefore, we can see that while we might see the Code
as being common sense, it can be advantageous to have the same "common sense" clarified
and defined in writing.
In Ireland, the Code of Conduct can trace its beginnings to the Education Act (1998) and the
Education (Welfare) Act (2000) which led to the creation of the Teaching Council;
"The Teaching Council was established on March 1st 2006. The purpose of the Teaching
Council, was set out by the Teaching Council Act 2001" (ASTI, 2006).
For a global comparison, the Code of Ethics for Educators in the USA is set out by the
Association of American Educators (Association of American Educators, 2015) along with
the Code of Ethics available from the National Education Association (National Education
Association, 1975). Neither of these institutions are state-bodies and therefore lack the same
legislative power that the Teaching Council has in Ireland, with the NEA defining itself as a
"professional employee organization" (NEA, 2015) and the AAE describing itself as
"national, non-union, professional educators' organization... without a partisan agenda"
(AAE, 2015).
In Finland teachers are fully unionised and, while they follow a state curriculum, they are
given a great deal of autonomy regarding the teaching methods employed and can choose
their own textbooks. This is not unlike the situation in Ireland, however one difference is that
they all belong to the same teachers union. The OAJ union of teachers in Finland note, "In
Finland over 95 percent of teachers are OAJ members. Today (2015) we have 121 000
members. 74 % of our members are women and 26 % men" (Ammattijrjest, 2015).
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While Americans, including the Obamam administration, are criticising teachers unions in the
US, Pasi Sahlberg does not believe that unions create problems in the education system but in
fact are very important to the success of the Finish system as he notes in the Heichinger
Report:
"Sahlberg: In Finland, unions arent an obstacle. Ninety-eight percent of teachers are
unionized. And this is very important to the success of our system. I wouldnt buy the
argument that unions are a problem" (The Heichinger Report, 2010).
The unifying effect that the Teaching Council has on teachers in Ireland could have a positive
effect on standardising expectations of professional educators and the Code of Conduct is an
important part of the standardisation of the profession. However, in Finland, as noted by
Sahlberg and the OAJ, it is not the government who sets the standard for the teachers to
follow, but the organisation led by the teachers themselves. Therefore, one criticism I would
have of the Code is that while it received a great deal of imput from educational
professionals, it may not be as taylored to the teaching profession in Ireland as it could have
been had it been created by a union representing all the teachers of the country. However,
until such a time as the ASTI and TUI amalgamate the oppertunity for this to occur may not
exist.
One area where the article seems to lack is in conferring any rights to the teacher. "Section 37
of the Employment Equality Act (1998) preservers the right of denominational schools to
uphold their religious ethos when recruiting staff" (Murray, 2014). Unfortunately, the Code
does not confer any rights or freedoms on the teacher regarding their freedom to adhere to
their own religious practices by conscientiously abstaining from activities within the school
that compromise their own religious beliefs.
At the tutorial discussion, one of the criticisms levelled at the Code of Conduct was that it
was a "common sense" document and therefore unnecessary. In addition to my earlier
comments on this issue, one could say that while some of the document does deal with areas
where any morally decent teacher should not need guidance, it also deals with reinforcing the
importance of collegiality with co-workers and the importance of co-operation. While on
teaching practice last year I observed that there was little or no co-operation between teachers
of the same subject area in the school, everyone worked as individuals.
The implications of this article on my future teaching are significant, for example it is
reassuring to see that there is a government document that notes the importance of cooperation with colleagues and CPD. These are two areas where I feel a lot of schools could
benefit from more co-operation and an acceptance of the necessity and value of CPD.
Additionally, it is reassuring that an article exists to inform everyone's understanding and
expectations of teachers, it can only be beneficial to have guidelines to work to.

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3. LIST OF REFERENCES
AAE. (2015, Sept 22). Who Are We. Retrieved from Association of American
Educators: https://www.aaeteachers.org/
Adwar, C. (2014, Mar 28). These Are The 19 States That Still Let Public Schools
Hit Kids. Business Insider. Retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/19-states-still-allow-corporal-punishment2014-3?IR=T
Ammattijrjest, O. (2015, Sept 23). Trade Union of Education in Finland.
Retrieved from oaj.fi: http://www.oaj.fi/cs/oaj/trade%20union%20of
%20education%20in%20finland
Association of American Educators. (2015, Sept 22). Code of Ethics for Educators.
Retrieved from Association of American Educators:
http://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics
ASTI. (2000). Education (Welfare) Act. Dublin: ASTI. Retrieved from
http://www.asti.ie/operation-of-schools/legislation/education-welfare-act/
ASTI. (2006). Teaching Council. Retrieved from ASTI: http://www.asti.ie/operationof-schools/outside-agencies/teaching-council/
ASTI. (n.d.). Education Act 1998. Retrieved 9 22, 2015, from Operation of
Secondary Schools in Ireland: http://www.asti.ie/operation-ofschools/legislation/education-act/
Murray, N. (2014, Oct 14). Catholic schools face closure over funding. Irish
Examiner. Retrieved Sept 22, 2015, from
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/catholic-schools-face-closure-overfunding-291135.html
National Education Association. (1975). Code of Ethics. Retrieved from National
Education Association: http://www.nea.org/home/30442.htm
NEA. (2015, Sept 22). About NEA. Retrieved from National Education Association:
http://www.nea.org/home/2580.htm
Sahlberg, P. (2012). Report of the International Review Panel on the Structure of
Initial Teacher Education Provision in Ireland. Dublin: The Department of
Education and Skills. Retrieved from https://www.education.ie/en/PressEvents/Press-Releases/2012-Press-Releases/Report-of-the-InternationalReview-Panel-on-the-Structure-of-Initial-Teacher-Education-Provision-inIreland.pdf
The Heichinger Report. (2010). The Heichinger Report. What can we learn from
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Finland?: A Q&A with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, What can we learn from Finland?:
A Q&A with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg. Retrieved from
http://hechingerreport.org/content/what-can-we-learn-from-finland-a-qawith-dr-pasi-sahlberg_4851/
The Teaching Council. (2012). The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers
(second edition). Dublin: Teaching Council.

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